Euromonitor International has released its annual Top City Destinations Ranking for 2017 covering 100 of the world’s leading cities in terms of international tourist arrivals. This year’s report includes forecast data up to 2025 and incorporates future travel trends to give further insight on how travel trends are borne out of the opportunities and challenges that cities face.

According to the report… (roll the drums)

…Hong Kong is the most visited city in the world, benefiting from its strategic location and relationship with China, followed by Bangkok, which has beaten London into third place for the third year. Asian cities dominate the global destination rankings thanks to the rise of Chinese outbound tourism. Seven years ago 34 cities from Asia Pacific were present in Euromonitor International’s ranking. This jumped to 41 cities in 2017 and is expected to grow to 47 cities in 2025. Asia Pacific cities remains the tourism hot spots changing the travel landscape and is expected to continue doing so in the coming decade. Singapore has overtaken London as the third most visited city in the world by 2025 making the podium positions fully Asian.

PHOTO: chinadiscovery.com

On the continent the performance of European cities is being hampered by several events in recent years, including the Eurozone and migrants crisis, as well as Brexit and terrorist attacks. But some European destinations, in particular Greece, Italy and Spain are profiting from unrest in the Middle East and North Africa offering a similar climate to countries affected by unrest such as Turkey, Egypt and Tunisia.

New York, the most visited city in America and the only US city in the top ten most visited city ranking, has revised its 2017 forecast expecting a potential fall of 300,000 visitors, as a worst case scenario.

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